Racking the slide on a 380!! DAMN

[Florida bob]

All right-- I may have to hire someone to rack the slide for me!! That mother is tough. Can I order a set of springs that won't cause a rupture??

[bonjorno2]

keep racking the slide over and over and over again at home... make sure it is lubed up nice also. They are very tight and don't losen up much more after you break them in either.

[wayneo1]

I put my wifes rubber dishwashing gloves on to rack the slide over and over. Looks stupid but it works.

[TucsonMTB]

You could just go shoot the thing! Racking the slide by hand is just a less costly way of getting some initial break-in wear. There is nothing magic about it. Many people just shoot their pistols to reliability . . . that would include me. ;)

[Florida bob]

I like your idea best!! Shoting sounds a lot more fun than doing it manually! I also watched a video on Utube that illustrated the overhand method. Looks like a winner. I was using the slingshot and that made it more difficult. Thanks all

[bonjorno2]

careful not to get your hand caught up.... it's easy to do when you stop paying attention and you haven't built up the muscle memory! Enjoy your kahr

[TominCA]

Mine is / was hard to rack also - You can work it 500 times - but you will never make that many before your arm falls off! After about 500 rounds mine is still stiff - but easier than before! My new, never fired, MK9 is much easier to rack. I had an older P380 (frame cracked) and that old one came with noticeably weaker springs. Two things:

First - Locking it back overnight is not nearly as good as working the slide to break the springs in (I know because I tried it both ways) So your choice is shoot it or lock it back or cut a coil off - But if you cut a coil then you will get failure to go into battery when the springs (Finally!) get broken in.

Second - Be very careful of the place where the barrel hood meets the ejection port on closing. Catch your finger in there and the sharp edges will take a bite right out of your finger. I took a stone and rounded the corners after losing a piece of my finger. A week later I did it again (real smart!) but because the corners were rounded I just got a blood blister.

I am now working on being able to rack the slide with either hand - Thanks for the tip on the gloves - I think I'll try them!

[jocko]

All right-- I may have to hire someone to rack the slide for me!! That mother is tough. Can I order a set of springs that won't cause a rupture??

have to rack ther slide 500, 300 or 100 times. This is a suggestion to helpt he gun settle in without the bang thing happening. Kahrs are and willnever be a ***** to hand rack, so accept that. Shooting it does wonders for bgreaking it in and smoothing some things out to be easier to do some things.

Practice makes perfect, or should Isay perfect practice makes perfect.

[wayneo1]

your right shooting it does sound alot better.

[DJK11]

I have just short of 3,000 rnds. through my P380 and it's starting to loosen up. I had plastic shavings from the frame rail on my shooting hand for a good 700 rnds.

That's tight.

[jocko]

evidently it took care of itself and wore off the high spots.

[Florida bob]

I went to the shooting range where they sell firearms also. Lucky for me the gunsmith was working the counter that day. I asked him to look at my 380 and give me his opinion on how to reduce the force necessary to rack the slide. He tried the slide and said" Good god that is tough" Then he found the same model in the showcase. Tested it and it was at least 50% easier than mine.
I ordered a new dual spring from Kahr and got lucky. The lighter one came through! Now I am not killing my hands and arms any more.:cool: Good luck to anyone that tries the same solution.

[Bawanna]

Was the gun in the display case a brand new one also or a range rental?

Guess it don't really matter since your new springs gave you the results you sought. Trying to figure how a couple of you would have ended up with such tough heavy springs?

Maybe we'll never know.

[Doctorbob]

All right-- I may have to hire someone to rack the slide for me!! That mother is tough. Can I order a set of springs that won't cause a rupture??

Just keep at it. After a while you will notice that not only are your hands and arms stronger but that people in the neighborhood are bringing their difficult to open jars to you for help. You will probably never be able to rack it one handed (like you can with a Glock) if you're wounded, or rack it by catching the rear sight on your belt (unless it is a reinforced kevlar belt).

Seriously, it gets a bit easier as you go. BUT, be sure to rack the slide ALL THE WAY back until you feel it clisk against the stop and then let go quite smartly to allow it to spring forward.

[jpl2]

I recently bought a 380 and had a number of problems. Kahr sent a spring that was almost impossible to rack. The problems continued and the gun went back to Kahr twice. They obviously replaced the spring because it now racks as easily as it did when I bought it. Also the gun works reliably now. Not sure what is going on but thought this was odd.

jplapp